Lowes Blue Hawk Tape Works Great

[dlatch]

I was in Lowes hardware the other day and noticed their store brand (Blue Hawk) of blue painters tape was almost 3" wide. I picked up a roll and have had fantastic results. Both PLA and PETG have been sticking great! In fact, I almost have the reverse problem where the part sticks too well - but not quite. In both cases the heat bed is off. I have a thin piece of glass over my heat bed. Then I have a layer of traditional 3M blue painters tape. I then run enough of the Blue Hawk tape over the 3M tape to ensure my part will fit.

I printed a 6" wide PLA part and it tried to lift at the edges. I used clamp style paper clips to clamp the edge of the blue tape to the glass over the heat bed and I had minimal lift - it stuck to the tape that well.

I have not tried it with ABS yet - that is next.

I highly recommend that you try this tape.

BlueHawk.JPG

[Marm]

What the point of using the 3M stuff if you're covering it with other tape?

[dlatch]

I have it. It was already there. And it lifts off the 3M tape easily. I think the 3M brand has some form of release agent on the surface. I also think the primary reason is my Z-Axis is already calibrated to this height and it is a royal pain to change it. High on my agenda is a new bracket that makes adjusting the Z-Axis much easier.

[dlatch]

OK, I tried ABS and as you might expect, it was an epic fail. I thought it was sticking but as we got to about the third layer the part started curling from multiple corners.

[tjnamtiw]

why would you not use the heated bed? I have a piece of 8 x 8 tempered glass I got from Amazon and a light coat of hairspray is all I need to REALLY stick PLA. Haven't tried ABS and see no reason at this early time in my 3d printer 'career' to muddy the water. So much to learn.

[dlatch]

If I understand your question correctly, I use a heated bed (100 C) for ABS but run it cold for PLA and PETG. All 3 are different beasts. I too have an 8" piece of glass (85 cents at Lowes). I recently tried purple rub-n-glue on the glass for ABS. It works great.

[hangdog242]

Try using vinyl film (calendered Vinyl), It works great with PLA and ABS. It's plastic, hot plastic want to stick to other plastic. You don't need glue, hairspray or tape. Print first layer at about 40 to 50. heat the bed to 60 for PLA 70 or 75 for ABS. And (very important) don't try to remove print while bed is hot it stretch the vinyl. Let it cool down to about 30 degrees or less. Holds down large prints very well.

Thanks